Haus Stunden

13.02 – 21.03.2009

I’ve never had a very good memory. My visual memory is especially bad. This, in my opinion, is the best excuse for making paintings… because one way or another you always end up making the same painting again and again.

Jesper Christiansen, 2008

Galerie Mikael Andersen is pleased to present new paintings by Jesper Christiansen in Berlin. In the exhibition the Danish artist examines the phenomena of time and memory. Time is ever present, always taken for granted and yet extremely difficult for us to grasp. How can time be made visible in a picture? How can one present memory? What techniques can restore memory and how can one remember a feeling? Can painting possibly accomplish this?

A source of inspiration for Jesper Christiansen is the 1975 Russian film “The Mirror” by Andrei Tarkovsky. Flashbacks and childhood memories are linked through various points in time in this partially autobiographical work. The Danish artist transposes his technique into his painting. In the new works he uses floor plans of buildings as a framing device that delineates a space for action and activity. Inside of these fields Jesper Christiansen creates childhood landscapes arranged with objects, colors and textures and integrates these settings into historical spaces.

The reference points for Christiansen are not only film, theatre and music, but also the work of Marcel Proust and memorable and impressive moments from the artist’s environment that he then assembles into a new context. In this way, layer upon layer results in a juxtaposition of figurative elements. Temporal experience is thus made visible by painterly means. The painting becomes a site of memories

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